Digital and Paper-Based Hospital Workflows and 60-Day Mortality in Acute Leukemia: Retrospective Natural Experiment.

BACKGROUND

Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have been associated with better clinical workflows and fewer documentation errors. However, evidence regarding their effect on time-sensitive leukemia care in public hospitals in Latin America remains limited.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to compare 60-day mortality and urgent supportive-care processes between 2 tertiary public hospitals in Mexico with different documentation models (integrated EMR vs traditional physical records [TPR]), under the hypothesis that digital workflows may facilitate more timely treatment.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective natural experiment including 274 patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia treated between February 2023 and April 2025. Clinical characteristics, treatment intensity, complications during induction, antibiotic administration times, and survival outcomes were abstracted from finalized institutional records that are routinely reviewed at discharge by the institutional medical record committee as part of standard quality-assurance procedures. The primary outcome was 60-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included time to first antibiotic dose after recognition of febrile neutropenia, treatment-related complications, and the number of operational steps required for urgent care processes. A subgroup analysis of 70 patients with complete timing documentation was performed for antibiotic administration. Comparisons between hospitals were performed using univariate tests, Kaplan-Meier 60-day survival curves, and multivariable logistic regression.

RESULTS

Of the 274 included patients, 104 (38%) were treated at the hospital using an integrated EMR, and 170 (62%) at the hospital using TPR. Sixty-day mortality was lower in the EMR hospital (6/104, 5.8%) than in the TPR hospital (61/170, 35.9%; P<.001). In the subgroup with complete timing data, the mean time from febrile episode recognition to first antibiotic administration was shorter in the hospital using EMR than in the hospital using TPR (54, SD 18.4 minutes; P<.001). Although the EMR hospital used a higher proportion of high-intensity regimens, patients in that hospital had better 60-day outcomes. In multivariable analysis, hospital type remained independently associated with 60-day mortality (odds ratio 0.11, 95% CI 0.05-0.26; P<.001), whereas kidney injury and hepatotoxicity were associated with worse outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

In this natural experiment, the hospital using an integrated EMR had a lower 60-day mortality and shorter time to antibiotic administration than the hospital using TPR. These findings are hypothesis-generating and suggest that digital workflows may contribute to more timely urgent supportive care, but they should be interpreted with caution, given the retrospective 2-center design and the potential for residual confounding.